Epigraphia Indica Vol 33

SR No.: 032587
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: D C Sircar
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1959
Total Pages: 514
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 29 MB

Page 124

80
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXXIII suffix bol, is the honorific plural of boyu and it is found both as bol as in the record under review, and as boyul or boya. Generally, in the formation of such names, the prefix indicates a place name, e.g., in Atakuru-bōya, Kumunuru-bōya, etc., and the expression as such is construed to stand for the person who held the office of the boya of the place. Sometimes such names are followed by the names of the persons themselves, e.g., Nadukuri-boya Sarvasarman, Kanparbōya Manḍaśarman, etc. It may therefore be suggested that in the expression Katli-bol, the word Kalli stands for the name of the village of which Ganapati was the boya or bol. If thi were so, a person named Ganapati may have caused the images of Nandiévara and Dandisvara to be made. But it has to be noticed that there is actually an image of the god Ganapati near the inscribed slab. It is therefore more probable that this is one of the images mentioned in the record and that Kalli-bol himself was the author of this and the other two.
Lines 7-9 of the text inention a person named [Mu]nasanga as the son of Eyu[va]-acharlu. This statement is followed by the last sentence of the record, in Sanskrit, attributing the writing (or rather the engraving of the epigraph) to this individual. That this person himself was the sculptor of the images is not ruled out, since his father is referred to by the epithet ächarlu (i.e., acharyulu) which is indicative of the artisan class to which he belonged. The term ächäri is the common designation of an artisan, either a carpenter or a mason.
All the three images mentioned in the inscription, viz., Ganapati, Nandiévara and Dandiévara are lying near the inscribed slab and two amongst them have already been referred to above. About a foot high, in the usual seated posture, with the mushaka as his characteristic vahana, i a much wornout image of Ganapati. By the side of the aforementioned image, there is an equally worn out image of the bull Nandin, which is invariably associated with any temple of Siva. This is indeed the Nandiévara referred to in the record. The third image, viz., that of Dandisvara, is a seated figure with four hands, holding a danda or staff in one of its right hands, the objects held in the other three hands being too worn out to be recognised. However, the seated posture of the image and the unmistakable danda ale enough indications for identifying the image as of Dandisvara referred to in the inscription. It may be recalled that the Malēpāḍu and Dommara-Nandyala plates of the Telugu-Choda chief Punyakumara quote an invocatory verse in praise of Lakuṭapāņi (Lakulisa). Lakuta or laguda being a synonym of danda, the identity of Lakuṭapani with Danga. pāņi, Dandesa or Dandiévara is obvious. As Lakulisa appears to have been the family deity of a branch of the Telugu-Chodas of Renadu, Vikramaditya to whose reign the record purports to belong was, in all probability, a member of this branch of the family. It has been shown that there was a branch of this family, the members of which bore names ending in aditya, such as Vikramaditya, Uttamaditya, Satyaditya, etc. Among them are two kings who bore the name Vikramaditya and were related to each other probably as grandfather and grandson. Judging from the similarity of the names and the provenance and palaeography of the records, it is very ikely that Vikramaditya of the record under review is identical with either of hese two rulers (more probably the second of the two) of this branch of the Telugu-Chōda family he relationship of which to the main branch is, however, still unknown.
If the identification suggested above is accepted, the present epigraph adds one more to the wo known lithic records of Vikramaditya. The sculpture of Dandiévara, identified with Lakula, ppears to be the earliest known representation of the deity in South India."
1 Above, Vol. XXXI, p. 79, text lines 36-40.
The word boya, said to be a derivative of bhögika, stands for an office. A.R. Ep., 1921-22, Part II, p. 97. Above, Vol. XI, p. 337 ff.; Vol. XXVII, pp. 268 ff.
Ibid.. XXVII, p. 248.
Cf. ibid., Vol. XI, Plate facing p. 346.
Loc. cit.; above, Vol. XXVII, p. 236.
Above, Vol. XXVII, p. 209, note 1.